What Ex IAF Pilot, Who Almost Became 1st Indian In Space, Said On Gaganyaan

Air Commodore Ravish Malhotra (Retd), who narrowly missed the spacecraft on the historic Indo-Soviet space mission in 1984, still wants to fly into space.

Mr Malhotra, 80, was selected along with Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma for India's first space mission. He was trained to fly on that mission as a backup for Mr Sharma, who flew aboard Soyuz T-11 on April 3, 1984, and became the first - and still the only - Indian to travel in space.

Ravish Malhotra with the Soyuz T-11 crew
Photo: Russian House, New Delhi

Mr Malhotra, the unsung and possibly forgotten space hero of India, spoke to NDTV ahead of National Space Day, the first anniversary of the historic soft landing by the Indian space agency of the Vikram lander at the Shiv-Shakti Point nearer the south pole of the moon on August 23, 2023.

"If given a choice, I will fly into space, preferably on India's Gaganyaan," Mr Malhotra told NDTV.

He said that if an American senator - at the age of 77 - can fly into space, "certainly I can also fly into space".

US Senator John Glenn became the oldest human to fly to space on board the Space Shuttle in 1998 and remained in space for over a week.

Under the Gaganyaan mission, India plans to send humans to an orbit of 400 km above the Earth's surface for at least one day and bring them back.

India has picked four candidates for the Gaganyaan mission - Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla, and Group Captains  Prasanth Balakrishnan, Ajit Krishnan, and Angad Prathap.

Mr Shukla and Mr Nair are training at NASA for a possible Indo-US mission to the International Space Station in 2025.

Ravish Malhotra On 1984 Space Mission

Ravish Malhotra, looking back on the space mission in 1984, said it was hard to stomach that he could not fly into space, but then it was always known that only one of them - between Rakesh Sharma and himself - would fly to the Russian space station.

Ravish Malhotra with Rakesh Sharma
Photo: Russian House, New Delhi

"One has to play the cards as they are dealt but there was an initial shock of not getting selected," Mr Malhotra, who has retired after a successful career at the Indian Air Force and then in the private sector, said.

Ravish Malhotra with Rakesh Sharma
Photo: Russian House, New Delhi

Along with Mr Sharma, he remained the only trained Indian astronaut till India recently chose four more astronaut designates, the Gaganyatris.

Mr Malhotra said he still keeps fit and lives his life to the fullest with fighter jet sorties echoing at his residence in Bengaluru.

Ravish Malhotra On Gaganyaan Mission

Ravish Malhotra also spoke on the Gaganyaan mission and said that the four Gaganyatris will do "exceedingly well" as they are all toppers from their batches at the Indian Air Force.

They will do a "wonderful job" as astronauts, he told NDTV.

Mr Malhotra has known all four test pilots even before they were selected. He was also involved in their selection process when the four Gaganyatris underwent basic training and selection at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) in Bengaluru, the same elite institution that selected Mr Sharma and Mr Malhotra in 1983.

When asked if he has confidence that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be able to pull off the Rs 10,000 crore Gaganyaan mission, Mr Malhotra said, "I have no doubt in my mind that India and ISRO will pull this mission off very successfully as and when we are ready with it."

"ISRO exudes confidence that they can do it successfully," he added.

He also said he is very confident that the ISRO will live up to the challenge given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to land an Indian on the moon by 2040.

"There is a lot of work to be done but it will happen," Mr Malhotra said.

Mr Malhotra flew fighter planes and participated in air raids into Pakistan in 1971. He then took early retirement from the Indian Air Force in 1995 at the rank of Air Commodore. He then joined the Bengaluru-based aerospace company Dynamatic Technologies Limited.